When Does Social Media End?

FACING THE REALITY WE ARE TRYING TO ESCAPE

Q: When Does Social Media End?

A: Anyone reading or listening to this remember Betamax? Or VHS? How about DVDs? Getting warmer? Binge-watching shows on streaming platforms are the current mass-approved entertainment, and who knows what’s next? Interactive Cosmic Holographic Theater? Let’s see where we go in this radically airy and technologically charged year of Jupiter in Gemini, especially with Pluto in Aquarius just starting to amp up. These two heavy hitters are in a harmonious trine aspect during this potent Gemini New Moon, indicating powerful and amplified change. With Pluto retrograde, some reflection on where we’ve been and where we are headed is the perfect segway into this new era.

So where are we now? Quite possibly confused. Neptune is hovering at the potency of 29 degrees in Pisces (its homeland), just leaning on the door of the pressure cooker that is Aries. This is right on the cusp of death and rebirth, and Neptune (slow to move) is pulling our focus here on purpose. In its glory, Neptune represents communion with our Being, and in its shadow - addiction, fantasy, and avoidance. Pisces is the dream world, and nowadays, people are choosing more and more to escape reality rather than face it. Aries represents a rude awakening to that slumber, and when Saturn and Neptune meet up in Aries at zero degrees on Feb 20, 2026, life as we know it will be shaken and stirred.

BEING HUMAN IN THE AGE OF AI

On a basic level, our media consumption habits are changing. News, entertainment, and social feeds have all merged into one. People are now creating 60-second “episodes” on TikTok. Feature films are struggling to hold the average attention span, which is why shows watched on streaming platforms are gaining popularity. Only the die-hard, fast and furious, core sex and violent mass-produced franchise films seem to have the financial backing to make it to the big screen. Indie film fans still show up for festivals, preserving a dying breed of storytelling.

Are we even human if we stop sharing our stories? Will being human remain relevant in the realm of Film/Art? What about AI? Everyone watched with fervent anticipation during the writer's strike in Hollywood as they paced the pavement to keep actors and writers' rights in the face of the looming threat of AI taking over the Hollywood machine. Somehow, they’ve postponed what feels eventual, if not inevitable. And even if a sudden moral or at least rational ethic swept through the boardrooms designing our apocalyptic fate (in the hands of AI), could the humans who created AI undo something they’ve already done?

The answer is quite obvious. AI isn’t new. Those developing in this field have been at this since before the 1950s with a vision of creating machine learning that can surpass human capabilities. Visions have power, and we are living in the destiny of a mail-order, tech-driven future envisioned by the curious and the careless.

TO BE (SOCIAL) OR NOT TO BE (SOCIAL)

As social media becomes less and less 'social,' and AI infiltrates our tech-driven world with its endless (often meaningless and regurgitated) information, will our relationship with our phones change? For better or for worse? Will the very concept of 'being social' continue to transform? Pluto in Aquarius is set to challenge our collective mind, urging us to explore the truth within ourselves, our communities, and society as a whole.

I started this question with a not-so-secret desire to see social media, (which I truly and openly loathe but participate in anyway as a means of connecting where people gather) dissolve sooner rather than later. However, in seeking the answer, I am brought to a slightly more dystopian prognosis than is comfortable. And so many of my clients are also struggling with a love/mostly hate relationship with this medium that often is a source of livelihood for them in some way. Regardless of what unfolds, there is a sobering element to this decade, and we can thank Saturn, the Lord of Karma, for this awareness in general.

WHAT CAN BE DONE?

On this New Moon, Saturn happens to be squaring what is otherwise a gorgeous, blessed Venus conjunction with the Sun and Moon. Saturn brings the reality check, the weighted blanket over life, and the heavy lifting required to move through these days with extra effort and due diligence.

Jupiter in Gemini rouses a fury of energy, movement, and change. This is a year-long transit, by the way, and so I recommend simultaneously holding on and letting go. Whatever is being whirled up in your life probably needs to be moved from where it has been, whether it is your living situation, relationships, career paths, or states of health and well-being. Knowing where Jupiter is transiting through your chart can help provide a deeper understanding of the movement around you.

And thank you, Pluto, as you retrograde back into Capricorn this September through November, all the eyes of the world will be watching as you reveal the fate of the US this election year. Given this obvious nod from the cosmos, it is likely that death, rebirth, and transformation will be the potent themes circulating the political agenda. Change is inevitable, the question is will it be beneficial? Maybe in the long run, and maybe not. Will it be excruciating? Most likely, yes.

The moral of this story? There are blessings to count, work to be done, sweat equity is required, and for now, social media continues to exist…

PS On a side note - I am in the process of shifting gears. I don’t know exactly what that means concerning my work, writing, and daily routines. Everything is changing for me so much that finding the ground under my feet hasn't been easy. I am going with it, knowing that resistance is futile at this stage, yet I am deeply uncomfortable. Death and rebirth. Nothing is easy in the transition between these states of being. As I find myself here newly, again, I thank you for sharing these moments with me and for the opportunity to share my experiences on the inner planes. Self-inquiry is a journey I’ve dedicated myself to for the last few decades, and still, I feel as if I am just beginning.

All my best to you and please receive the piece of my heart that lives inside these words.